Parsha Review Podcast · Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe

00:01 - Intro (Announcement)
You are listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Parsha Review Podcast.

00:09 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Welcome back everybody to the Parsha Review Podcast. We are now doing more catch-up on Parshas Noach. Now, very interestingly, we know the story of Noach. Noach was a righteous person in his generation. There's different commentaries of how you can understand that. Either he was only in his generation, and had he been in the generation of Abraham he wouldn't be considered righteous, or the opposite, no, he was a righteous person in his generation. If he would have been in another generation, he would have been even greater.

00:41
Okay, either way, the Torah tells us that God commands nalach and he tells them asei l'chot, tevas, atze gofer, make for yourself an ark. And there's great description of to how exactly this should be built how wide, how long, how tall, what it should be coated with. Very, very particular. What does Rashi say? Rashi says something so magnificent. He says har be'revach v'atzalol lefanov. He says there's many different ways for God to save Noach from the impending flood. Why should he build this massive, massive building that's going to float, known as the ark? God has many ways he can save him. It's going to be busy now building and building and building. How many Home Depots is he going to need to buy out all of their lumber for all of this wood. I mean, there's so many easier ways for God to save Noach. He says the reason why God told him specifically to build it in such a way so that the people of this generation will see that he was busy building this ark for 120 years. What are you doing? What are you doing? Everyone's going to pass by and say this guy's crazy. What is he building 120 years? He's at it banging those nails. You know, imagine, and he says oh, just be very careful because God is going to bring a terrible flood. He sounds like Alex Jones, right, he's a conspiracy theorist. One day there's going to be a flood and God is going to bring a flood onto the land. Ulai Yeshuvu, maybe they will repent. This is unbelievable. God has so many ways to save him, but no, god wants to wake people up that people should see this massive Teva, this massive ark being built, and they should ask. And people are going to ask and then they, hopefully, will have the opportunity to repent. So you know, there was once a group of students sitting by the Baal Shem Tov and they were sitting there and the Holy Baal Shem Tov tells them you know that God communicates with us every single day, thousands of times and if we only open up our eyes and ears, we'll be able to see his message. And we'll be able to hear his message as they're.

03:41
In the middle of this lecture and this was a common thing that would happen back in those days a non-Jewish Gentile knocks on the door. He says do you guys have anything that needs to be fixed Today? We don't fix anything, we just throw it out disposable, goodbye. But once things had value. He had a broken plate they could fix the broken plate. They had a broken dish you can fix whatever. It was a broken glass, they can fix it. So this guy was going around the little peddler saying you need a repairman, do you need to fix this? Do you need to fix that? They're like no, we have nothing to fix. So the Gentile says to them I know that you have something that needs to be fixed, you just don't want to fix it. And with that he leaves and the students are like okay, and the Baal Shem Tov says did you just hear what he said? God sent him to give you a message. We all have something to fix, but we just don't want to.

04:50
How profound. If we just listen to the messages, we see a whole beautiful story. It's a different picture. It's incredible, the insight, the beauty of the messages that God sends us every single day. When God tells Noach to build the Teva, when God tells Noach someone's by the front door. When God tells Noach build this ark, it's going to take 120 years.

05:25
Rashi says there were many ways for God to save him. God could have just taken and put him in a hot air balloon, right? God could have put him in a little capsule, put him in and it'll rain. And that's it. The world is taken care of. No, god, specifically, is communicating with mankind, telling them I'm giving you this chance to make a change. I'm giving you this chance to transform your life.

06:00
God wants us to hear the messages God communicates with us all day. God gives us the opportunity, to each and every one of us, to inspire change in our lives. And if God wanted to just kill the people of the generation of the flood, there's easy ways for God to do it. But God wants us to learn something Open up your eyes, open up your ears and listen to the messages. God is sending us messages all day, every day.

06:36
I just sat with someone yesterday morning, a dear friend of mine, right here in this room, and he was telling me that wherever he goes, he feels like God is sending him messages, and I think it's amazing. We have to all learn I don't want to get into the details because it's private, but sharing with me all of these incredible stories of how God is talking to him with numbers, with different animals, with different things, that people say, like what did you just say? You just said that word, that word, and it just lit up the whole control box. It's like lights word and it just like lit up his. You know, the whole control box is like lights on, lights on.

07:25
That's the way we need to live life. We need to live life and it's a crazy world we're living in because we have at the palm of our hands, we have news, more than we can consume. We have media. We have, you know, and thank God, I deleted all of my social media apps from my phone. I deleted all of my news apps from my phone. It's a working machine, it's not a consuming media machine. It's there to make me smarter a smartphone, right To make me smarter, not dumber. But it makes it more difficult for us, when we're so much in that world of consuming media to get those messages, it becomes more difficult for us to internalize.

08:18
When we happen upon a story, it's not a coincidence. There is no coincidence. God, like Noah building that ark, god is putting that story in front of our eyes so that it opens our eyes to something specific. If it's a story about someone who had a big Ponzi scheme, open our eyes to something specific. If it's a story about someone who had a big Ponzi scheme, don't look at that person and say, oh, what a scoundrel, what a cheating liar, what an embarrassment to the Jewish people. No, no, no, no. We have to look internally. Why did God want me to learn about this story? Perhaps I need to be more careful. When we see a story about something going on, maybe I need to be more careful.

09:13
God is talking to us in very plain, simple language, simple words. We know that the anchors of these news shows on television, on the internet. You know they use teleprompters, they have notes. They don't even know what they're reading. Hashem is putting the words there for us to be inspired, for us to influence change in our own life. That is what we need to internalize. Just like the generation of the flood, we shouldn't be washed away because we didn't get the message.

10:01
This Rashi is teaching us that God loves to communicate with each and every one of us, and God does so all day, every day. This should be an inspiration, hopefully, for all of us To take the call. God is reaching out to us all day. He's giving us opportunities all day. Let's take it in. Hashem should bless us all that we should never fail to receive those messages. Take it in, be inspired. Influence change. And, by the way, the message is personal, because how many times have we been someplace and we saw something and the person sitting right next to me did you see that? Like no, I wasn't looking Because they didn't need to see it, so God didn't show it to them.

10:55
My grandfather writes from the Baal Shem Tov. My grandfather writes from the Baal Shem Tov God communicates to us. Everything we see is a reflection back to us. We can call people crazy. Oh, look what a terrible parent. It's a message for you. Oh, look at that cheater. It's a message for you. Look at that good deed. God is saying I see your good deeds, the good, the bad and the ugly and the beautiful. Hashem is communicating with us constantly and we have to pick up its simple messages. Hashem wants the relationship with us and Hashem continues to send us messages, hoping that we'll just pick up the phone and listen to our messages. Hashem should bless us all to always hear the message.

11:54 - Intro (Announcement)
Amen Torch, the Torah Outreach Resource Center of Houston. Please help sponsor an episode so we can continue to produce more quality Jewish content for our listeners around the globe. Please visit torchweb.org to donate and partner with us on this incredible endeavor.